Round Rock rallies for peace, justice

Inside an old stone church, in a chapel cooled by ceiling fans that didn’t do much cooling on a sticky summer night, Round Rock came together Wednesday in a gathering of raw emotion, sober reflection and hopeful, joyous prayer.

On the very same night Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. was hosting its first Bible study since the June 17 racially motivated shootings that took the lives of six women and three men – all of them black – a racially mixed crowd gathered at St. Paul AME on Shepherd Street.

The men, women and children who were there refuted, at least for one night, Rev. Martin Luther King’s observation that worship time is the most segregated time in America.

Sisters Ella Morrison and Rita Effinger arrived early, enduring both the heat and mosquitoes as they set up a pole-and-canvas tent on the church’s front lawn.

“Our grandfather was one of the founding members,” Morrison said of the church, located on Shepherd Street since 1958 but with Round Rock roots reaching back to 1885.

“We were baptized here. We’re AME,” Morrison said of the work she and her sister put into organizing the candlelight vigil. “We wanted to do something. We decided to have a prayer vigil.”

“My thing is, we should be together regardless,” Effinger added.

Mary Lieffort, a retired teacher and one of the first to arrive, overheard Effinger and stated: “Amen, sister! How do we do that better?”

And so the tone was set: “How do we do that better?”

Worshippers arrived individually and in small groups. Religious and secular community leaders were among them, as well as folks with no particular title – none beyond American citizen, Round Rock resident and member of the human race. All told, about 70 of them packed the tiny church, where recorded hymns played as guests settled in.

“The fact that it happened at an AME church, it’s fitting we gather with a sister organization,” said Chuck Freeman, pastor at Free Souls Church.

“We’re here to show solidarity,” said Glenda Whitehead, pastor at Journey of Faith United Methodist Church. “We talked about it Sunday in church, and the fact that racism is still an issue in America.”

Guest speaker Carlos Salinas, a former Round Rock City Councilmember, said racism is a societal problem, but it’s also one that needs to be addressed in every human heart.

“It’s individuals,” Salinas said. “We have to look at what we say and how we say it.”

Scanning the sea of faces before him – white, black and brown – Salinas said: “Every community should look like this room, right here.”

“The Bible tells us there is no male or female,” said Pastor Dave Koppel of Palm Valley Lutheran Church. “No slave nor free, no Jew nor Gentile – and we are all one. It’s time for us to start acting like it.”

Host pastor Rev. Robin McMiller had turned the microphone over to others, after welcoming her guests at the program’s start. In addition to being the spiritual leader at St. Paul AME, she is a retired lieutenant colonel who served 30 years in the Army – including time in Afghanistan.

She expressed gratitude to those in attendance, stating: “I’m so proud to be part of this community. I knew that Round Rock would come together. It’s a sad occasion but a happy occasion … evil will not overcome. The Lord will prevail.”

Inside that old stone church, a cross-section of Round Rock talked and sang. And they prayed.

After about an hour, they filed out the front door, unlit candles carried carefully as they sang “Amazing Grace” together.

As darkness descended, someone lit the first candles and other candles were lit from them.

Pictures of the slain had earlier been mounted on white paper and tied with ribbon to a porch railing. They ranged in age from 26 to 87. Ella Morrison read their names and a little bit about each one. As she did this, some in the crowd flinched, as if absorbing the news for the first time.

The night air was cooler now. Birds sang their evening songs. Candles glowed in the darkness.